Defending a Foreign Citizen in a Child Custody Dispute

Our client, James from Brooklyn, New York, reached out to us for legal assistance.

In 2019, while studying for her master’s degree at Columbia University, Tatyana met James, who was working for an investment fund in Manhattan. Their relationship quickly became serious.

Tatyana was in the U.S. on a one-year F-1 student visa, which required her to return to Russia upon its expiration. She did not want to leave, and at her request, the couple married. Based on the marriage, Tatyana first obtained a fiancée visa and later received a Green Card. In 2021, their son Robert was born.

However, the child’s birth only deepened the couple’s existing disagreements. Frequent conflicts arose over parenting matters with Tatyana’s mother — who favored traditional Soviet child-rearing approaches — playing an active role.

In June 2022, Tatyana traveled to St. Petersburg with their son to visit her mother. Shortly after arriving, she informed James that she had no intention of returning to the United States.

Shocked by this decision, James sought help from a respected New York law firm.

The U.S. attorneys advised him to pursue the child’s return under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (1980). They prepared the necessary documents and filed a petition, but five months later the Russian court declined to hear the case.

The reason: the Convention does not apply between the United States and Russia as the two countries have not mutually ratified it.

In February 2023, James turned to GK Legal, our Russian law firm.

We proposed a two-step strategy:

1. Obtain a Russian court order establishing visitation rights;
2. Seek full custody through U.S. courts.

We filed a claim with the Kirovsky District Court of St. Petersburg, requesting that James be granted the right to meet his child in Russia and to take him to the United States for one month during the summer holidays.

We submitted evidence confirming James’s stable living conditions in New York and the absence of any negative background-no criminal record, health issues, or substance abuse.

After four months of proceedings, the court granted James permission to take his son to the U.S. for the summer break.

In August 2023, James lawfully brought his son back to the United States. Upon return, with the support of our partner law firm in New York, he obtained a full custody order from a U.S. court.

Today, the father and son live together in the United States.

Tatyana has lost her Green Card and remains in Russia.